My co-worker just picked up that 74 2.0 from Reno and drove it home, here in orange county. It's got some LOUD exhaust leaks on it. He doesn't have the obligatory jack and stands YET... but when I layed down next to it and put my hands up around the headers, there's alot of exhaust pushing out on both sides near what I'm guessing is the header flanges to the heads.

Are these gaskets difficult to change? or can you put the car on ramps and change them without pulling the engine and shtuff?

The gaskets where the heat exchangers attach to the heads are actually copper rings that deform slightly when torqued. These can be easy or a pain, depending on the condition of the exhaust head studs and nuts. Soak them well with penetrating oil and give it a try. If you're lucky the nuts will come off. If you're unlucky the studs may come out with the nuts, in which case you can separate them and replace the studs. If you're really unlucky, you might break a stud or pull the threads.

When you buy new copper gaskets, buy new copper nuts as well.

For the 962nd time, those nuts ARE NOT copper. They're steel with a thin copper plated surface. The REAL nuts you want to use are the steel nuts with the helicoil inside. 2.0 engines used a nut with a built in flange. The Cap'n

hehe, sore spot? Thanks for the info, I'll pass it along.

Obviously, I should have said copper plated steel nuts!

So what was the verdict? is there a tech section on this? pics? does anything need to be pulled, ie, THE ENGINE? blah!

Anyone? Bueller?

It's actually pretty easy, the hard part is getting the socket extention to reach the nuts. After you unbolt the muffler from the heat exchangers you should can unscrew each nut without removing the engine. There are 2 nuts per pipe so 4 on each side. After pulling of the heat exchanger you will have to look to find the copper gasket, it is probably black from the carbon and stuck to the head. If it's stuck u can try prying it out with a small screw driver. clean everything, replace with new gasket and slide the HE back up in place and tighten them up.

Thanks!!